Tag Archives: documentary festival

What: Festival of nonfiction film hosted by Duke University (under the aegis of its Center for Documentary Studies) that has developed into one of the premier US showcases for documentaries, generally screening a number of music films among a lineup of 50-odd high-profile, often issue-oriented docs. The awards-eligible New Docs program includes Mavis!, a profile of gospel/soul legend Mavis Staples, and the North American premiere of Sad Songs of Happiness, which follows three Palestinian voice students competing in a prestigious European music contest.

What: “Named ‘One of the World’s Top 25 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee,’ by MovieMaker magazine in 2013, and then ‘One of the World’s Five Coolest Documentary Film Festivals,’ by the same publication later that year, AmDocs is located in the beautiful resort community of Palm Springs, California. Ideally located 90 minutes east of Hollywood, this film mecca boasts a favorable viewing audience and a proven track record of supporting independent films.”

The 2015 program includes a handful of music documentaries well over 100 feature-length and short nonfiction films, most of them relatively little seen. Among them is Big Voice, which AmDocs describes as a “real life Mr Holland’s Opus” following a year in the life of a high school choir and its demanding director; The Last Barn Dance, a short doc about an aging North Carolina farmer’s struggle to save his dairy business and his family’s 50-year tradition of hosting community dances; and Runnin’ Down a Dream, the epic four-hour history of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers directed by 2015 AmDocs guest Peter Bogdanovich.

Keep On Keepin’ On, which chronicles the relationship between aging African-American jazz lion Clark Terry and a young, white, blind musical protege, won the audience prize for music film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, better known as IDFA, which closed out Sunday. The film scored a 9.1 rating (out of 10) from festgoers, topping a field of 10 contenders for what is formally called the IDFA Melkweg Music Documentary Audience Award and copping a €2,500 cash prize for the first-time director Alan Hicks, a jazz drummer who toured with trumpeter Terry for three years before embarking on the doc.

The IDFA nod raises the international profile of Keep On Keepin’ On at a time when the well-reviewed film has somewhat stealthily emerged as a serious Academy Awards contender. (The last two winners of the music doc prize at IDFA were 20 Feet from Stardom and Searching for Sugar Man, by the way.) Producer Quincy Jones, an old friend of Terry’s, has reportedly been talking the movie up with Oscar voters, and distributor Radius-TWC is co-owned by Harvey Weinstein, who’s been known to do some lobbying as well. Continue reading →

What: 2015 marks the 12th edition of “the largest cinema event in Montana and the premier venue for nonfiction film in the American West,” offering “a unique setting for filmmakers to premiere new work and for audiences to see innovative new films, as well as classics in the genre,” per the organizers.

Music docs are always a big part of the action in Missoula, taking up a significant chunk of the larger arts-focused Sights & Sounds section. Check back in mid-January for a rundown of music-film highlights. This year’s Sights & Sounds selection offers 10 feature-length music docs (plus several music-themed shorts); highlights include The Possibilities Are Endless, the beautifully conceived chronicle of Scottish singer-songwriter Edwyn Collins’ recovery from a debilitating stroke and one of our favorites of 2014, and Hip Hop-eration, which accompanies three ninety-something New Zealanders to Las Vegas to compete in the World Hip Hop Dance Championships. There’s also a retrospective of musician/filmmaker John Cohen’s pioneering work documenting traditional music and dance in Appalachia and Peru.

What: Hosting its 14th edition, DocPoint is Finland’s only exclusively nonfiction film event – now expanded to the Baltics with DocPoint doppelganger in Tallinn, Estonia (running January 30 to February 2) – usually features a handful of music documentaries strewn across a variety of themed strands. This year they include PMMP – Life Is Right Here, about the farewell album and tour by the eponymous Finnish pop duo, and Monsterman, a look behind the scenes (though not behind the masks) at Lordi, the outlandishly costumed Finnish metal band that won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Here’s how the fest describes itself:

Founded in 2001, DocPoint Helsinki is one of the largest documentary film festivals in the Nordic countries. In Finland, it is the only festival solely dedicated to documentary films. DocPoint expanded to Tallinn in 2010, which makes DocPoint the world’s only festival happening in two countries at the same time.

The aim of DocPoint is to give the people an opportunity to see some of the most talked-about documentary films of the past year. It is also a prestigious venue for Finnish documentary film. DocPoint’s New Finnish Documentary Films Selection includes annually some of the most anticipated premieres of the year.